A Northeastern Seattle Graduate Bridging Tech and Social Impact

When faced with a challenge, Steffi Benjamin takes a consistent approach. It’s carried her to success starting a master’s program in a new country, building a career in nonprofits in a city focused on tech, and founding a student group to push for cultural change. The formula is simple, but powerful: with clarity of purpose, a structured approach, and a willingness to persevere, there’s little that can’t be done. 

Steffi’s journey began in India, where she got both bachelors and masters degrees in social work and spent three years training a variety of communities in online safety. That time instilled a deep drive towards community service and social impact – and also taught her that nonprofits can get stuck in a reactive stance, always putting out fires without being able to plan for the future. So when she moved to the US in 2023 to be with her fiancé, she decided it was time to go back to school and learn to out-plan the problems in the sector she’d chosen to put her life into.  

With its smaller campus, tight-knit student community hailing from across the globe, and robust project management degree, Northeastern’s Seattle campus appealed to Steffi right away. The school also focused heavily on the tech industry. Before arriving on campus, she worried that her career in the nonprofit sector could make her a poor fit. Still, the tech-focused environment could provide the structured, optimized approach to project management she was seeking, so she decided to take the plunge.  

Once she arrived on campus, she found a lot of appetite for community service. “When I had conversations with students about my background, they were really very excited. They’d say, we wish we could do something – is there something we can do?” she said. “A friend from class wanted to do something for people with disabilities, because she had an invisible disability. She wanted more conversations on the campus, and I wanted more student involvement with nonprofits and the community; that’s how we came to the whole concept of Agents of Social Impact.”

When Steffi and her co-founder, Denise Ramirez Soule, approached advisor Megan Sykes with the idea of a student group that hosted conversations about disability, nonprofit work, and social impact on campus, and created volunteer opportunities for students in the wider Seattle community, the response was enthusiastic. Sykes helped them to set goals and get the club approved, and put the two in contact with Seattle campus dean Dave Thurman, who joined their effort as a founding member of the Agents of Social Impact board.  

“Our dean was so instrumental in starting this student interest group; our very first kickoff event was completely supported by him. He got the guest speakers, and they were such resourceful people,” Steffi said. She was particularly touched by one guest speaker, Gael Tarleton, who had been in the public sector for over 25 years. “She said that working in mission-driven roles is food for the soul. That really touched me.”

Agents of Social Impact also hosted monthly volunteer opportunities with a variety of local nonprofits. ASI members sent letters to isolated seniors through United Way, packed student lunches with the Backpack Brigade, and spent time with children in local Seattle shelter homes, all with the aim of introducing students to the many ways they could contribute to the community. “I’m so happy to share that after our events, a lot of students signed up to be volunteers with these nonprofits. We were so happy that we could bridge that gap,” Steffi said.  

Of course, founding her own student group wasn’t the only way Northeastern in Seattle supported Steffi to enter the nonprofit industry. With support from her co-op advisors and their connections in the public sector, she also landed a co-op at Keel Works, which supports and upskills people to find sustainable employment. For six months she lent structure to the nonprofit’s operations, crafting smoother and more accountable volunteer transitions. She also organized a detailed plan to build an educational dashboard for the KeelMaster program, which is now fully articulated and ready for pilot implementation.

“It was a great experience for me; it really helped me to understand how the nonprofit sector works here in the US,” she said. “It helped me put what I learned in my project management degree into practice.”

Steffi graduated in 2025 with her MS in project management, with a concentration in leadership studies. She joined the Bellevue College Foundation as a development coordinator, where she enjoys managing fundraising streams to ensure higher education is financially accessible to all of Bellevue’s students. She regularly employs skills from Northeastern in Seattle, from the risk management techniques she learned from her favorite professor to the tech skills that have since become an unexpected asset in her career. 

“To be honest, tech just blends into your career; there’s no way you can escape tech. I’m using a lot of tools I learned on campus in this role,” she said. “I really like it, because I can bring a bit of structure into the nonprofit operation.”

After Steffi graduated, Agents for Social Impact was picked up by another pair of student leaders, who are currently preparing to hand it off to a third set. It’s been deeply rewarding for Steffi to see the seeds she planted as a student bear lasting fruit in the NU in Seattle community. She acknowledges that being a nonprofit-focused person on a tech-focused campus can come with questions about imposter syndrome and belonging, and she hopes future students like her will matriculate knowing they’ll find support and community at Northeastern in Seattle. 

“The advice that I would give them is to utilize the resources that are available on campus – and trust me, there are a lot. Ask questions, or you’re never going to know what’s available to you,” she said. “If this is something that you want to do, if you put your heart and soul into it, the campus is going to help you in every way possible. That’s what happened with me.”

By Madelaine Millar